Illeana Douglas has that very unique look to her. She has neither the looks or attitude of the typical Hollywood actress. She has charmed her way into the SuicideGirls hearts in such films as To Die For, Goodfellas, Ghost World and Stir of Echoes. She hasn't done many comedies and her latest, Dummy, keeps her consistent with her weirdo oeuvre.
Dummy tells the story of Schoichet [Adrien Brody] who is browbeaten at every turn, by his family, his dead-end job and the faceless suburb where he still lives at home. That is until he decides to make a change to ventriloquism. Steven's sister [Illeana Douglas] recently broke off her engagement to an unstable accountant [Jared Harris], which makes her career as a wedding planner an emotional minefield. After Steven loses his job, things actually start to turn around. He falls for his counselor at the unemployment office [Vera Farmiga], and through the best efforts of Steven and the little friend on his knee; good things start to happen for everyone around him.
Check out the website for Dummy.
Daniel Robert Epstein: What's it like playing opposite a dummy and his ventriloquist?
Illeana Douglas: [Dummy director] Greg [Pritikin] is very funny and we hit it off immediately when we first talked. We seemed to have a past life brother and sister thing. One of the things I wanted to adlib in Dummy is that I wanted Heidi to yell at the dummy and say "Shut up I'm talking to my brother." For her to not even be aware she said that.
But as far as I was concerned it wasn't too weird to be working with a dummy. I come from a very strange family so maybe it seemed normal to me. When I got to know Adrien very well he let me put my hand up the dummy.
DRE: You have a family stranger than having a dummy as a family member?
ID: My brother worked with puppets in Czechoslovakia so anything goes in our family. I just thought it was an interesting character thing. I love movies like Magic and I thought it was great to do a comedy about a ventriloquist. Greg and I are both around the same age so we talked about our obsession with that movie, Magic with Anthony Hopkins.
DRE: That movie scared the hell out of me.
ID: It is really scary.
DRE: After films like Stir of Echoes and Ghost World you have a punk/Goth following. Have you ever encountered those fans?
ID: I know there is a Swedish girl who runs a website called Why I love Illeanna. I never look at these things but someone showed it to me. She writes me letters about she's into Wicca. People keep saying that means good witch but I don't want to find out. But she is in Sweden. Some of that too is from Six Feet Under because I leaned the character towards being a Goth girl. But I haven't met them so much in person. God only knows what else is on the web. It would be like opening Pandora's box.
DRE: What were you like in high school?
ID: I graduated in 1981 when it was the era of Cheryl Tiegs and Christie Brinkley so I really was way on the opposite of what you were supposed to be. I was more like an Enid [from Ghost World]. I wore a lot of vintage clothing and had an obsession that I was male characters from movies. I dressed like a reporter with a card in my hat. No one ever told me that wasn't a good look for high school. But I had fantasies of who I wanted to be so I would dress as an explorer or a cowboy but being a reporter was the biggest one. I dressed like Elton John too with the big glasses and the derby hat. There are embarrassing pictures of me from high school. I don't know what kind of look I was trying to achieve.
DRE: What did you like the most about doing Dummy?
ID: I like that it's a family comedy and it captures this kind of unguarded comedy. I'm half-Italian so my grandmother would say stuff like "You look awful but I don't mean that in a bad way." That's how everyone talks to each other. I also like the idea of the nerd as hero and the idea of capturing people who aren't there to save the world. Ghost World had a little bit of that. I grew up in a small town and you just think that becoming successful is a million miles away which the characters in Dummy also feel. I like doing movies that relate to people's experience. When I do a character I try to base it on someone I have met or an experience I've had. I feel that's my role as an actor.
DRE: Obviously you shot this movie before Adrien Brody won his Oscar. What was it like working with him?
ID: I remember he came to the set and said they offered him two movies. Dumb & Dumber 2 and The Pianist. I told him to do Dumb & Dumber 2; it'll be a big hit. He was great. I was a big fan of his and I'd seen him in Summer of Sam and Liberty Heights. One time we met in an elevator, we were talking and we said we should work together. A week later I got this script and they said he was attached. His being involved made me want to do the film. It was a fun experience in that we didn't have trailers. So we would all ride to work together in this van down to Wayne New Jersey. We would sit in the basement and try to be quiet while someone else was doing a scene upstairs [laughs]. We would all have to stand in line for the bathroom to change into our wardrobe. It felt very familial. We had a lot of silly laughs off the set. At the end of the movie when we were doing a scene, lots of times we would collapse giggling because it seemed so silly because it felt like we were doing a home movie at times.
When he won the Oscar it felt like America fell in love with him but I felt a tug of brotherly love. It was an odd experience. It's definitely great that he won because it may make more people go see Dummy.
DRE: Isn't it unusual to do an independent film that can be seen by most people? Often times the independent films that get the most attention are the edgiest.
ID: It is nice to do an independent film that can be a commercial hit. I think comedies do really well. I wish more independent films were comedies.
DRE: Can you watch the scene in Cape Fear where DeNiro bites a chunk out of your face?
ID: I haven't seen it in a long time. I know they spent a lot of time trimming it down before the release. I mainly think of behind the scenes because it took two days to shoot. It was difficult and I definitely got some bruises doing it.
DRE: It's a very famous scene as well. That's what everyone always picks out when discussing the movie.
ID: I had only done a couple of films before that so it was an interesting way to come across in my first big role. But then to work with Robert DeNiro was very exciting.
DRE: What was it like working with Terry Zwigoff on Ghost World?
ID: He's fantastic. The only problem with Terry is that he ruins my best takes because he laughs so much. When he offered me the part I told him I wanted him to make the character a failed performance artist like she couldn't even get into Mummenschanz. When I said that he just started laughing and I thought he totally got me. He let me do my thing. That character was probably the farthest I've ever gone. It almost leans towards my sketch comedy days because it's a hair away from being over the top.
DRE: I'm not going to ask the boring question of the difference between independent and studio films. But is it easy for you to move back and forth between them?
ID: It used to be really easy to flit back and forth between studio and independent films. Now it depends on the director. I'm enjoying doing independent films more because there is a lot more freedom. There aren't as many cooks tampering with something you are trying to do. In that sense the independent films are easier. With Stir of Echoes and Ghost World, we were on location and everyone is doing the best job they can. Sometimes when you do studio films you develop insecurities because a lot of people are standing around in suits whispering. You don't know if it's going well or not so I've started to lean more towards doing independent film. I've done some studio films in the past few years where I've worked really hard and you end up in two scenes. That's very disappointing so I've been choosier with studio films.
DRE: Does doing a film like The Adventures of Pluto Nash [released in 2002] make you not want to do another studio film until you have to?
ID: Yeah. That came about when I was working with Jay Mohr on Action. We were big Saturday Night Live and Eddie Murphy fans. This movie came along and it seemed funny. By the time it came out it was a completely different film than what we had signed up for [laughs]. I don't know exactly what happened in between what we did and when it came out but I do recall I said "space comedy? Could it work?" I guess it didn't.
DRE: How was doing Wes Craven's movie Cursed?
ID: I'm not allowed to talk about it much. It's a comic horror film with Christina Ricci and Skeet Ulrich. I always wanted to get into the horror genre. I like scary movies. Mainly I want to go to the fan shows and sign posters with my head hanging by a thread like a B-movie actress.
DRE: Have you been watching Action on Trio at all?
ID: I haven't. But I have so many nice memories from working on that show. I know as I'm taking my dying breath the ambulance guy will ask me why they cancelled Action. Now Buddy Hackett is gone may he rest in peace.
DRE: What was it like working with Buddy?
ID: It was crazy. He would greet me every morning by putting his head between my breasts and go "Scuse me lady, can i park my Buick here?" Such sensitivity from a man who used to do his Chinese waiter act on the Ed Sullivan show where used to put a rubber band around his eyes. Now we know that is insensitive [laughs]. That kind of behavior is not at all funny nor is the humor of Foster Brooks. But I do miss the lovable drunk.
DRE: Is there any kind of role you'd like to do?
ID: I want to be an animated character. I got to sing in Dummy and I would like to do more of that too. I'm also doing more writing and directing. I'm a big fan of Albert Brooks, Nichols and May. I'd like to follow in their footsteps and do comedy films.
DRE: Are you planning on doing a feature soon?
ID: Hopefully. I've done a bunch of short films. I've got a show coming out on the Sundance Channel called Illeanarama which is going to incorporate some of my older shorts with some of my newer ones. One is called Devil Talk about the devil and his mother. It has some of my friends in it like Jeff Goldblum, Daryl Hannah and Sarah Silverman. That's coming out in November. I'm hoping that will get me my feature film directing going. I also want to bring back some sketch comedy.
DRE: What sketch troupe did you work with?
ID: I did work with a group called Manhattan Punch Line with Oliver Platt in the early 80's. I love sketch comedy. My real goal is to do something with Albert Brooks. That would be my fantasy. I stay up night and day thinking up stuff he might find funny. His short films really influenced me. In high school my goal was to be a writer for SNL and that's what I thought I was going to do. Then I got into the acting but his films made me want to do films. Between him and Monty Python that is what I wanted to do.
DRE: Did you get the Monty Python Meaning of Life DVD?
ID: Not yet but I was watching The Rutles on the plane flying in. this guy next to me taps me on the shoulder and says "I see you're a Rutles fan." It was so random.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
Dummy tells the story of Schoichet [Adrien Brody] who is browbeaten at every turn, by his family, his dead-end job and the faceless suburb where he still lives at home. That is until he decides to make a change to ventriloquism. Steven's sister [Illeana Douglas] recently broke off her engagement to an unstable accountant [Jared Harris], which makes her career as a wedding planner an emotional minefield. After Steven loses his job, things actually start to turn around. He falls for his counselor at the unemployment office [Vera Farmiga], and through the best efforts of Steven and the little friend on his knee; good things start to happen for everyone around him.
Check out the website for Dummy.
Daniel Robert Epstein: What's it like playing opposite a dummy and his ventriloquist?
Illeana Douglas: [Dummy director] Greg [Pritikin] is very funny and we hit it off immediately when we first talked. We seemed to have a past life brother and sister thing. One of the things I wanted to adlib in Dummy is that I wanted Heidi to yell at the dummy and say "Shut up I'm talking to my brother." For her to not even be aware she said that.
But as far as I was concerned it wasn't too weird to be working with a dummy. I come from a very strange family so maybe it seemed normal to me. When I got to know Adrien very well he let me put my hand up the dummy.
DRE: You have a family stranger than having a dummy as a family member?
ID: My brother worked with puppets in Czechoslovakia so anything goes in our family. I just thought it was an interesting character thing. I love movies like Magic and I thought it was great to do a comedy about a ventriloquist. Greg and I are both around the same age so we talked about our obsession with that movie, Magic with Anthony Hopkins.
DRE: That movie scared the hell out of me.
ID: It is really scary.
DRE: After films like Stir of Echoes and Ghost World you have a punk/Goth following. Have you ever encountered those fans?
ID: I know there is a Swedish girl who runs a website called Why I love Illeanna. I never look at these things but someone showed it to me. She writes me letters about she's into Wicca. People keep saying that means good witch but I don't want to find out. But she is in Sweden. Some of that too is from Six Feet Under because I leaned the character towards being a Goth girl. But I haven't met them so much in person. God only knows what else is on the web. It would be like opening Pandora's box.
DRE: What were you like in high school?
ID: I graduated in 1981 when it was the era of Cheryl Tiegs and Christie Brinkley so I really was way on the opposite of what you were supposed to be. I was more like an Enid [from Ghost World]. I wore a lot of vintage clothing and had an obsession that I was male characters from movies. I dressed like a reporter with a card in my hat. No one ever told me that wasn't a good look for high school. But I had fantasies of who I wanted to be so I would dress as an explorer or a cowboy but being a reporter was the biggest one. I dressed like Elton John too with the big glasses and the derby hat. There are embarrassing pictures of me from high school. I don't know what kind of look I was trying to achieve.
DRE: What did you like the most about doing Dummy?
ID: I like that it's a family comedy and it captures this kind of unguarded comedy. I'm half-Italian so my grandmother would say stuff like "You look awful but I don't mean that in a bad way." That's how everyone talks to each other. I also like the idea of the nerd as hero and the idea of capturing people who aren't there to save the world. Ghost World had a little bit of that. I grew up in a small town and you just think that becoming successful is a million miles away which the characters in Dummy also feel. I like doing movies that relate to people's experience. When I do a character I try to base it on someone I have met or an experience I've had. I feel that's my role as an actor.
DRE: Obviously you shot this movie before Adrien Brody won his Oscar. What was it like working with him?
ID: I remember he came to the set and said they offered him two movies. Dumb & Dumber 2 and The Pianist. I told him to do Dumb & Dumber 2; it'll be a big hit. He was great. I was a big fan of his and I'd seen him in Summer of Sam and Liberty Heights. One time we met in an elevator, we were talking and we said we should work together. A week later I got this script and they said he was attached. His being involved made me want to do the film. It was a fun experience in that we didn't have trailers. So we would all ride to work together in this van down to Wayne New Jersey. We would sit in the basement and try to be quiet while someone else was doing a scene upstairs [laughs]. We would all have to stand in line for the bathroom to change into our wardrobe. It felt very familial. We had a lot of silly laughs off the set. At the end of the movie when we were doing a scene, lots of times we would collapse giggling because it seemed so silly because it felt like we were doing a home movie at times.
When he won the Oscar it felt like America fell in love with him but I felt a tug of brotherly love. It was an odd experience. It's definitely great that he won because it may make more people go see Dummy.
DRE: Isn't it unusual to do an independent film that can be seen by most people? Often times the independent films that get the most attention are the edgiest.
ID: It is nice to do an independent film that can be a commercial hit. I think comedies do really well. I wish more independent films were comedies.
DRE: Can you watch the scene in Cape Fear where DeNiro bites a chunk out of your face?
ID: I haven't seen it in a long time. I know they spent a lot of time trimming it down before the release. I mainly think of behind the scenes because it took two days to shoot. It was difficult and I definitely got some bruises doing it.
DRE: It's a very famous scene as well. That's what everyone always picks out when discussing the movie.
ID: I had only done a couple of films before that so it was an interesting way to come across in my first big role. But then to work with Robert DeNiro was very exciting.
DRE: What was it like working with Terry Zwigoff on Ghost World?
ID: He's fantastic. The only problem with Terry is that he ruins my best takes because he laughs so much. When he offered me the part I told him I wanted him to make the character a failed performance artist like she couldn't even get into Mummenschanz. When I said that he just started laughing and I thought he totally got me. He let me do my thing. That character was probably the farthest I've ever gone. It almost leans towards my sketch comedy days because it's a hair away from being over the top.
DRE: I'm not going to ask the boring question of the difference between independent and studio films. But is it easy for you to move back and forth between them?
ID: It used to be really easy to flit back and forth between studio and independent films. Now it depends on the director. I'm enjoying doing independent films more because there is a lot more freedom. There aren't as many cooks tampering with something you are trying to do. In that sense the independent films are easier. With Stir of Echoes and Ghost World, we were on location and everyone is doing the best job they can. Sometimes when you do studio films you develop insecurities because a lot of people are standing around in suits whispering. You don't know if it's going well or not so I've started to lean more towards doing independent film. I've done some studio films in the past few years where I've worked really hard and you end up in two scenes. That's very disappointing so I've been choosier with studio films.
DRE: Does doing a film like The Adventures of Pluto Nash [released in 2002] make you not want to do another studio film until you have to?
ID: Yeah. That came about when I was working with Jay Mohr on Action. We were big Saturday Night Live and Eddie Murphy fans. This movie came along and it seemed funny. By the time it came out it was a completely different film than what we had signed up for [laughs]. I don't know exactly what happened in between what we did and when it came out but I do recall I said "space comedy? Could it work?" I guess it didn't.
DRE: How was doing Wes Craven's movie Cursed?
ID: I'm not allowed to talk about it much. It's a comic horror film with Christina Ricci and Skeet Ulrich. I always wanted to get into the horror genre. I like scary movies. Mainly I want to go to the fan shows and sign posters with my head hanging by a thread like a B-movie actress.
DRE: Have you been watching Action on Trio at all?
ID: I haven't. But I have so many nice memories from working on that show. I know as I'm taking my dying breath the ambulance guy will ask me why they cancelled Action. Now Buddy Hackett is gone may he rest in peace.
DRE: What was it like working with Buddy?
ID: It was crazy. He would greet me every morning by putting his head between my breasts and go "Scuse me lady, can i park my Buick here?" Such sensitivity from a man who used to do his Chinese waiter act on the Ed Sullivan show where used to put a rubber band around his eyes. Now we know that is insensitive [laughs]. That kind of behavior is not at all funny nor is the humor of Foster Brooks. But I do miss the lovable drunk.
DRE: Is there any kind of role you'd like to do?
ID: I want to be an animated character. I got to sing in Dummy and I would like to do more of that too. I'm also doing more writing and directing. I'm a big fan of Albert Brooks, Nichols and May. I'd like to follow in their footsteps and do comedy films.
DRE: Are you planning on doing a feature soon?
ID: Hopefully. I've done a bunch of short films. I've got a show coming out on the Sundance Channel called Illeanarama which is going to incorporate some of my older shorts with some of my newer ones. One is called Devil Talk about the devil and his mother. It has some of my friends in it like Jeff Goldblum, Daryl Hannah and Sarah Silverman. That's coming out in November. I'm hoping that will get me my feature film directing going. I also want to bring back some sketch comedy.
DRE: What sketch troupe did you work with?
ID: I did work with a group called Manhattan Punch Line with Oliver Platt in the early 80's. I love sketch comedy. My real goal is to do something with Albert Brooks. That would be my fantasy. I stay up night and day thinking up stuff he might find funny. His short films really influenced me. In high school my goal was to be a writer for SNL and that's what I thought I was going to do. Then I got into the acting but his films made me want to do films. Between him and Monty Python that is what I wanted to do.
DRE: Did you get the Monty Python Meaning of Life DVD?
ID: Not yet but I was watching The Rutles on the plane flying in. this guy next to me taps me on the shoulder and says "I see you're a Rutles fan." It was so random.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
is a great movie and she's
excellent in it.
I am sad they didn't mention the Larry Sanders Show.
That show fucking rules.